The present invention relates to the field of ink jet printing. More particularly, the present invention is an apparatus that provides a Nozzleless Droplet Projection System which accurately delivers fluid droplets onto a projection surface at very high printing speeds.
A nozzle based droplet projection system is typically used to project ink onto paper in a common ink jet printer, manufactured by the computer peripherals industry. Though these printers tend to be very slow in producing hardcopy, they are an attractive product to many consumers interested in a low cost product. The problem of accurately projecting fluid droplets, such as ink, onto a projection medium, such as paper, at very high rates and low cost has presented a major challenge to designers in the computer peripherals field. Surface contamination problems and clogging of the ink nozzles is a common problem. Limitations in the droplet ejection rate impede the development of a significantly faster system with the current nozzle based technology.
A printer is a device which transfers information, either graphics or text, from a computer medium to hardcopy, such as paper. The speed at which the paper hardcopy may be produced, the clarity and the resolution of the hardcopy are measures of the quality of the printer. Resolution is a measure of the capability of a printer to reproduce fine detail on paper. A printer which produces high resolution output can create a faithful reproduction of the original text or graphics. Higher resolution printers generate a more impressive final product and are, consequently, in greater demand. The technology utilized determines the quality of the printer and its ultimate cost. Ink jet printing is a relatively inexpensive direct marking technology which has been slow to mature at least in part because most "continuous stream" and "drop on demand" ink jet print heads include nozzles. Although steps have been taken to reduce the manufacturing cost and increase the reliability of these nozzles, experience suggests that the nozzles will continue to be a significant obstacle to realizing the full potential of the technology. The development of a straightforward method and apparatus which would allow one to solve the speed and maintainability problems of nozzle based print heads, at a lower cost, would represent a major technological advance in the computer peripheral industry. The enhanced performance which could be achieved using such innovative technology would satisfy a long felt need within the industry.